Repression And Emancipation

Marcuse,as an outstanding representative of Western Marxism,deeply criticizes his era to pursue human emancipation,which not only stings his era,but also wakes up the current era.Based on Marx's practical philosophy and from the perspective of cultural philosophy,this paper adopts the research method of the unity of history and logic for providing reference for the research on the development of human beings through comparative analysis of Marcuse's works,papers and interview records in order to carry out innovative interpretation of his ideological system and new interpretation of his concept to study the issue of human repression and emancipation.The human emancipation is a historical issue.Marcuse's exploration of human liberation is not only his personal fate experience,but also the reflection of his era.Facing the Marxist crisis in the World War I,he explored the combination of Heidegger's existentialism and Marxism.With the rise of political existentialism and the outbreak of World War II,he changed his tune and drew a clear line with existentialism,trying to revive Hegel's philosophy to activate Marxism and attack Fascism.After the war,the developed industrial society deepened repression from the field of consciousness to the field of instinct,and created one-dimensional man.Facing the strong ruling power of the developed industrial society,he used Freud's psychoanalytical theory to make up for Marx's theory of man and attacked the oppression brought by class struggle by showing a glimmer of hope in despair and resorting to art and nature for the realization of new sensibility and human emancipation.Human repression,like human emancipation,is a historical problem.At present,human repression is the accumulation of repression in human history.The beginning of human society is the beginning of repression.The most primitive repression is the formation of patriarchy.Since the formation of patriarchy,people have been overthrowing patriarchy on the road of striving for freedom,but every revolutionary struggle for freedom eventually evolved into a new patriarchy.Primitive patriarchy,clan system,religious culture and rational culture,this cultural development course has not only emancipated people,but also put new shackles on people.Since modern times,technological rationality has been regarded as a force for emancipation.Developed industrial society relies on science and technology to create a rich material civilization that liberates human flesh,but technical rationality also provides a new form of governance.Positivism has provided a philosophical basis for the rule of technological rationality.Although existentialism resisted the rule of technological rationality,political existentialism provided theoretical support for the rise of Fascism.Logical positivism and pragmatism completely expelled the negativity of human being and made human being a one-dimensional senior slave.The advanced culture fought against the repression of the developed industrial society,but it in the end had to choose to obey.History is progressing while repression is developing.To realize human emancipation,we must go deep into history and pay attention to the existence of specific people in specific history so as to achieve the emancipation of specific people in specific reality,which embodies Marcuse's profound sense of history.Facing developed industrial society,people had lost the consciousness of resistance and criticism.Marcuse reconstructed the relationship among science,metaphysics and art through studying the thoery of human emancipation in the history of Archaeology and put forward the vision of emancipation of a new sensibility,new science and Utopia.On the issue of human emancipation,contemporary scholars resort to the power of the social system more and advocate the realization of human emancipation by building a new society.But man are people,not things.This simple revolutionary way of new bottles of old wine will bring new repression to people.Only human's new sensibility can bring about the birth of a new society.The cultivation of new sensibility will inevitably make aesthetic art the power and way of emancipation.It is the theme of Western Marxism that appealling to aesthetic art,arousing people's resistance consciousness,eliminating people's depression and realizeing human emancipation which is also the core idea of Marcuse's aesthetic Utopia in his later years.Aesthetic art can solve the inner boredom,and to a certain extent,dispel people's depression which can't eliminate people's depression from the root.It is connivance and powerless to realize human emancipation through aesthetic art.Marcuse's profound analysis of the repression of human society enriches the new connotation of humanism,promoting the rise of ecological Marxism,raising the spirit of cultural criticism of philosophy,and having positive sign for the realization of human emancipation.However,because he has failed to see the practical nature of Marxist philosophy,his emancipation theory gave people a kind of illusion.He did have a positive diagnosis and treatment for the times,but at the critical moment,he gave the wrong prescription.Because of the conflict between technology and human natural organization contained in the new technology,cultivating new sensibility of people through aesthetic art failed to escape from the pattern of totalitarianism,and eventually the critical theory of mass culture ignored the audience.Based on Marx's practical philosophy,comparing to Marcuse's exploration of "human repression and emancipation ",to realize human emancipation,we must adhere to Marx's viewpoint of practice: basing on production practice,adhering to ecological practice,developing aesthetic practice,deepening communication practice,and adhering to the unity of labor,nature,aesthetics and communication.Man is the existence of reality,which means that there is repression.Therefore,the road to emancipation is an endless one.Man is the existence of purpose,which is the pursuit of emancipation.Although people can not completely eliminate alienation and obtain the emancipation in the absolute meaning,they can reduce alienation and obtain the emancipation in the relative meaning.The rich society still needs critical power to ignite the hope of emancipation and go to Utopia.Throughout Marcuse's life and his time,with his unique perspective he has made combination of the instinct of Eros,existentialism,rational dialectics and Marx's alienated labor in order to trace the repression in human history.His comprehensive and systematic criticism of the economic,political,social,cultural,ecological and psychological fields of the developed industrial society has an important warning significance for human development in the 21 st century and enlightens the healthy development of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.